'Portable' Truing Stand mkII

Well hello again there.

Instead of moving the floor lamp to the working area all the time, I added a small light. Being able to see the rim really helps. The light is a 1W high quality LED with a narrow reflector powered by a 2200mAh Lithium ion cell. There's also mounted a three step intelligent charger to the stand. Clever, isn't it. Yes, and the top of the light is flexible so I can turn it toward the bearing press/puller or were ever else I would want to.

Someone Insisted to Purchase my CF Wheels

.....And as the nice gentleman I am, I gave him a go. This of course means I'm in need of a new strong-High-Performance-good-looking-much-better-than-I'll-ever-need set of bling wheels.


I'm making use of same rim for the rear but the lower profile Winium, same as the Campa Hyperon, for front. And. White Industries Hubs. I was original thinking of using DT 240s, but fell for the bling look of the Whites. Also it will make a stiffer wheel with 11% extra flange distance and 22% more flange diameter. I will of course also use silver spokes and brass washer on the spoke heads to make them even stronger an give that little extra bling. I added a picture of a set with black hubs and spokes just to give you an idea of the build.


There's a slight weight penalty on the hubs, but I'll take it in on lighter spokes and one lighter rim, so the weight will be approx the same 1295g as the others but with less rotational mass. I can see I've pictured the wrong rear hub. This one's the right one. It's also a few grams lighter :)

All Dressed Up And No Place To Go

This is the typical weather situation in Stavanger. It rains during most of the fall with some elements of temperatures below freezing point. And when the spring is suppose to start...... Well that's when we experience the first long period of winter temperatures and snow. My road bikes are now all dressed up and ready to go, but I could be facing two more month with studded tires. That's like four pounds extra weight to the bike, and the rolling resistance? Man. Speeds above 20 mph's pure bonus.

Yes. Sometimes is good to have a big brother :-)

'Portable' Truing Stand

Now I can true wheels while listening to music,
having dinner, looking at TV, having guests.........
Yes you name it! The list of opportunities is endless.

Compact or standard crank?

What’s the best all round crankset if you’re only to have one. Defiantly the triple. You have the 30(32T) for climbing, the 53 for drafting and flats and the 42T for everything in between. So. Where does that leave the compact and the semi compact 39-53. Lets have a look.

The 53 and 50 are still good for flats, but the 34? Mostly climbing or recreational rides. You can of course put on an 11-? cassette, but using that 11 would be cross-chaining, and most cassettes are pretty much the same except for the three upper cogs, meaning whatever cassette you put on it only changes the lighter gears of the 34 chainring. Also. Going down in chainring makes the gears come closer together.

For a compact you’ll be in need of a compact (custom) cassette with a much more linear increase of teeth between the cogs to get a full use of it. Then we might be able to talk about benefits of the compact crank design, but even then I would say that a triple would be better or at least make use of a far smaller ‘big ring’ to get a bigger overlap and avoid forced front derailing around 28-32 km/h.

So what’s my conclusion. Compact’s probably here to stay ‘cause the bike industry need something to hype and a few people might benefit of it, but if you want something that really works you should take a look at your cadence and speed intervals and pick your chainrings from there. You’d probably get away with just changing the chainrings of your existing 130BCD crank arms.